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EA killing Online Passes for existing games

Publisher confirms it is retroactively eliminating online passes for all EA titles beginning with EA Sports games.

In response to consumer feedback, Electronic Arts has announced it is doing away with its controversial Online Pass scheme altogether. Previously, the company said only that future titles would not include Online Passes. Now, the move will be applied retroactively, beginning with EA Sports titles.

"As we discontinue Online Pass for our new EA titles, we are also in the process of eliminating it from all our existing EA titles as well," EA corporate communications representative John Reseburg told Game Informer. "We heard the feedback from players and decided to do away with Online Pass altogether."

"Players will see it first with some EA Sports titles, where a prompt to enter an Online Pass code will no longer appear in-game; with other titles we are simply making Online Passes available free of charge online," he continued. "These are rolling updates that are taking effect over the next several weeks. We hope players continue to enjoy our games and online services for a long time to come."

Online Passes have often been viewed as ways for developers and publishers to offset the financial shortfall of not seeing revenue when games are traded in and resold through retailers.

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Eddie Makuch
By Eddie Makuch, News Editor

Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.

625 comments
Nintyfan95
Nintyfan95

What's this, a New EA, glad the old CEO is gone. How about bringing back Overstrike. 

GERMANY21
GERMANY21

At last we see a good work from EA !!?!?!?!?!?!

poopinpat
poopinpat like.author.displayName 1 Like

June 9, 2013

"We are shutting down online services for all aforementioned titles."

-EA

ddogbritt16
ddogbritt16

so if i buy an ea game that already came out i wont need the online passes


noandno
noandno like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

Excellent news! Now for the DRMs

nervedamaged
nervedamaged like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

and why have they reached this decision?  Microsoft will police the gamers themselves!!!  I wouldnt be surprised if there was someone making money on this.  Buy the game used..???  It automatically has a fee right there.  Microsoft, and i hope not sony, will take care of EA's online pass with a nice check from MS.  Everyone wins!!  ohh, wait a minute...........damn those gamers!!!

yman173
yman173 like.author.displayName 1 Like

Question: Why would the biggest game studio on Earth do away with a method of collecting profit on used games?

Answer: Because Xbox One & PS4 will already have it built into their systems in some way.

This just adds further proof that we'll be paying $10-$30 fees to play our used games on the next generation. Trust me, EA doesnt "care" as much as they want you to believe they do. They just know the next-gen will make their Online Pass system redundant.

rpgking2005
rpgking2005 like.author.displayName 1 Like

Exactly. The more I think about this, the more it seems like a cynical (though brilliant) move on EA's part. They get to rake in the gamer goodwill now, knowing Sony and Microsoft will be doing this for them at the console level. They lose nothing and gain a fair amount in return.

mike300zxt
mike300zxt

Well done EA!  I hope you will continue to make all of your policies more consumer-friendly.  I would be happy to give you more gaming $ if that becomes the case!

Stephen Verwaayen
Stephen Verwaayen

So do I get my money back for buying an online pass this year?

GamersKing84
GamersKing84

You guys think EA/Dice will be able to put 64 player servers for this game on PS4? They havent mentioned a word about that and i dont know why!! I mean there shouldnt be a reason not to support it when the PS4 has powerful hardware specs and at least 10-15x more powerful than the PS3!!

zpluffy
zpluffy

@GamersKing84 

Yeah, but expect to see PC gamers saying that their Bf4 can support a whole countries' population in one map.

cool5845
cool5845

WHAT ABOUT FIFA???????  DAMN YOU EA! Sports titles should have been first??? I bought a used FIFA 13 and I wont buy the damn pass. Remove it already :s

VenkmanPHD
VenkmanPHD like.author.displayName 1 Like

It's a shame. Online passes did their job correctly.

Too bad the gaming community is full of the whiniest people on the planet, and have to ruin everything.

ExtremelyAVG
ExtremelyAVG

took them long enough.. I just feel sorry for the people who bought an online pass on a pre-owned or borrowed game.. I'm so glad I didn't bother buying this pass for dead space 3

and I doubt EA will refund the gamers who spent hard earned money on this joke of a policy..

VenkmanPHD
VenkmanPHD

@ExtremelyAVG I happily paid for every online pass.

It was worth the 10 measly bucks to make sure that the proper company was getting credit for what I bought.

ghstbstr
ghstbstr like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 3 Like

Am I the only one that doesn't dislike EA Games? I play games as I don't care who owns the games that I want to play. I do have favorites of some of the companies that make and owns games, but I don't dislike any of them.

TSMJM
TSMJM

@ghstbstr You really shouldn't use double negatives such as "doesn't dislike" and "don't dislike".....just something to whine about :)

VenkmanPHD
VenkmanPHD like.author.displayName 1 Like

@ghstbstr I'm with you. Without EA there wouldn't be Skate, or SSX, or Mass Effect...

People just find a way to whine as much as possible, about as little as possible. Even something as good as PAYING THE PEOPLE WHO MADE YOUR GAME instead of just gamestop.

TSMJM
TSMJM like.author.displayName 1 Like

@VenkmanPHD You realize someone already paid for the game once right?  Why should they get paid twice.  When you loan a game to a friend, do you charge him $10 so you can send it into EA so they get paid off of that also, because if not you are letting him steal from EA following your logic...

FKlepackiFTW
FKlepackiFTW like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

EA didn't have anything to do with Mass Effect 1. And it's also arguably the best ME of the 3.

jenovaschilld
jenovaschilld

Now with waning interest in all of EA publishers lineup of games, EA may finally start to look from its ivory towers at the disappearing customers and have decided the crickets are getting too loud. 

While all online passes need to be removed, all forms of ONLINE all the time games have to be fixed as well. Internet availability cannot be deciding factor of when and where you can play a 60$ game. 

eric_neo3
eric_neo3

Just your weekly required EA PR spiel from GS move along. There will be another next week and the week after that, anything to keep EA in the news feeds.

Savvy-Army
Savvy-Army

I forgive you EA, yeah, im nice like that.

Michael Vargas
Michael Vargas

This just validates the fact that next-gen console games will be treated as PC games. Only one person has access to it

Michael Vargas
Michael Vargas

Lol, I made money taking those from cases in GameStop then selling them online for way cheaper than what EA makes you pay for

leeko_link
leeko_link

Yay, should had done away with this a long time ago when gamers weren't pissed. It's the pissing generation now EA, y'all need to try harder than this.

AcidTango
AcidTango

I guess with the Xbox One that has that used gaming fees and the fact that the PS4 can give the publishers the option to block used games makes me think of why EA is stopping online passes since they don't need them anymore. I still don't trust them at all.

Brian Myers
Brian Myers

Do you think Developers will have one console charge for used games and not the other major console -- think about it.

Gravity_Slave
Gravity_Slave

And what about all the people that already purchased an online pass?  Do they get their money back?  Discount?  Coupon?....At least a hug and saying your sorry?

Sometimes doing the right thing, isn't doing the right thing.  

PatSon13
PatSon13 like.author.displayName 1 Like

@Gravity_Slave So you think that just because people aren't going to get refunds, EA shouldn't remove online passes? That makes no sense.

AzureBonds76
AzureBonds76

I think this is actually good news... There have been like 3 or 4 versions of what M$ might be doing regarding used games in the future floating around out there and to be honest it seems at least one of the biggest video game publishers (2k) has not a clue what M$ is going to do regarding the issue... So to assume that EA is in the know about it and are dropping the pass just because they are sure they will recoup the loss in the next console generation is exactly the opposite of why I believe they are doing it... Probably has more to do with damage control and trying to get back on the good side of gamers.... man image is everything and don't think the M$ isn't aware of the vast amount of negativity with the xbone reveal... they were testing the waters to see if they could get a cut of the used games industry by releasing all these conflicting statements and seeing what ppl would tolerate.. don't worry sony is no better they just let M$ make the first move and take the blame i'm sure they would like a cut of the action too... but to be honest i think the way to really build trust and not try to 3 card monty gamers (who are a fickle and intelligent lot mind you) is to just try to keep things the same...release games that people want to keep...offer interesting DLC that makes ppl want to hold onto games...play fair...rockstar games and beth and a few other publishers have done this and it works...i would never trade my copy in of skyrim or rdr etc due to the great support these games have had from the developers and their lasting appeal...



Runar Jenssen
Runar Jenssen like.author.displayName 1 Like

No need for online passes, when EA have clearly been working with Microsoft on the Xbox One, and influencing their decision to force players to come online at leat once every 24 hours, and linking every single game to their account.

ddogbritt16
ddogbritt16

@Runar Jenssen i dont think that EA has been working with microsoft


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